Huge new oil discovery in Brazil

....Better watch your backside Lula.........
(snip) The new field is expected to help Petrobras achieve its goal of making Brazil self-sufficient in oil. Since 2003, the company has been meeting 91% of the country's needs.
The Campos Basin region already contains 40 other offshore oil fields producing more than 1.1 million barrels a day, amounting to more than 60% of Brazil's production.
Last month, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva inaugurated the country's largest oil platform, named P-50, which is due to begin production in the basin's Albacoara Leste field early next year.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4563896.stm

makes marginal areas with what were unprofitable fields profitable. It doesn't help the price of crude much as these fields are either too small to make a difference, or the extraction cost is too high to bring the price down, or more typically both.

the high prices mean that formerly borderline or non-economic fields suddenly become profitable, advances in technology can mean the same thing, which is why we never quite run out of oil in the gulf of mexico, people are resourceful -- and never more so than when big $$$ are calling

congrats to brazil on their discovery but i suspect they kinda, sorta knew it was there all along to be used in event of need

...Wyoming is now scrambling to find and train oil field workers, at state expense, so they can get all the existing oil wells, which have been dormant waiting for the price of crude to rise and make them profitable again, back to pumping. There are also idled oil fields in North Dakota facing the same situtation. Another reason why ANWR was defeated.

My family's owned the land since 1919 and it's been known to have natural gas under it since about 1940 or so. But it didn't become profitable to drill the wells to get the gas out until 1995.
John
For years, Grandma G, then later mom, would get an option check every three years from Shell Oil. It was never much -- maybe a couple thousand bucks, which mom would keep half of and split the other half between her five children. We'd each get, maybe, $200 to go blow on something impractical.
The wells, as it turns out, are real humdingers -- one is the best producer in the company's portfolio. It was decided to drill them, coincidentally but simultaneously, with mom's death in November 1994 and the first royalty checks arrived the following January. We aren't hardly Jed Clampett-class, but the checks are enough to cover most of our monthly living expenses (taxes, utilities, the computer and cable TV bill, some beer). It's a nice legacy to inherit.

zit plagued teens and calling it a resource!!!

they're known to not care about environmental impact

unlike some other countries I could mention.

I love it. It won't be long before S.America will have an immigration problems from the north. I just hope that the neocon cabal in S. America is exposed and well watched by the new leaders of the rising S. American socialists. Yes, socialists can be democratically elected!

self-sufficient despite America's best efforts to keep it down. No more backyard for Bush and Negroponte to play in. Maybe this is why the shift from South America to the Middle East? Maybe a new backyard?

Che's dream is alive! A united, sustainable Latin America is within reach.

now there is a leap of faith. and please tell me why Colombia telling us to "fuck off" would be a good thing. You mean you would like even worse relations with latin america??

and our bankers, plus the IMF and other world organizations that have placed their big thumb over those countries and have kept them in slavery with interest and demands. And it appears that these countries are trying to come up with leaders who won't partner with the U.S. as some of their former rich Presidents have done for decades. The U.S. and the world banks contained, limited, orchestrated those countries financially and by policy.

Argentina and Venezuela have announced that they are going to pay off their debts to these usurers.

if someone lends you money, you pay it off.

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if you don't like the terms don't take the money.

that despserate people take loans from a loan shark that later break their knees.

alternately, a puppet government installed or backed by the US signs all sorts of deals with the World Bank and the IMF that are good for the US but bad for the country. Then once democratically elected leaders take power they try to remedy that. Do you really know nothing about World Bank and IMF policies? Are you at all familiar with what happened in Argentina, for example?

if you don't give us a new loan we are not going to pay back the old one??

passed a law forbidding the transfer of title out of argentina in the property that was the collateral for the old loans.

They're not entering into any more loan agreements with terms like the old ones.

Instead, they seem to be buying bonds from Venezuela.

in which Michael Manlius, former PM of Jamaica, says that when you don't have the money to buy penicilin for your hospitals, you don't have a choice. He said that signing the terms of the IMF/WB loan agreement was the lowest moment of his life.

He was a good guy.

For many leaders (of a different political persuasion) it can't be the most lucrative moment of their lives. Read Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, which describes how these loans are often designed to enrich a few wealthy families. Furthermore, they are designed to fail, because the real profit is in the default terms and not in their timely payment. Of course, only leaders who cared about their citizens, like Michael Manlius, were worried about default. If you don't care about your country, you don't care about default.

industry segment? Interesting, huh?

an understanding about what was being done to them. Which you don't see in many rich countries like ours. For example the banana farmers and the old men sitting around the fireplace (and those dudes were high). The narration was excellent as well.

from the 70s that they showed, and then his more recent interviews about the loan process. But you're right -- now that you mention it, that did strike me too that people knew the score. They were beaten down and impoverished by an economic process that they were totally aware of.

I'd like to think that having political leaders like Manlius saying the truth, framing it progressively, was part of the process (the cause AND the result) of having a population that knows the score.

But it's also sadly obvious that no matter how politically aware Jamaicans are, they just don't have the power to stand up to the US, the IMF, and the WTO and NAFTA.

http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/sharemed/targets/images/pho/t046/T046965A.jsm

This guy????

I don't remember them consulting their people about it. Maybe if he got on the air and explained the terms and consequences Argentina would have told him to fuck off. In any case it seems Venezuela is paying their loans. What's your bitch now about the Chavez government. Is he not doing it in a way you like? Not fast enough? Tell us.

to do. If they make poor decisions then whose fault is that? the Word Bank??

leaders entering into the agreements.

I get the opinion from your anger at fat people in supermarkets that you're more inclined to blame the victim?

of what?? their own appetite and lack of self discipline??

so are they then both perpetrator and victim?? I certainly don't blame McDonalds for fat people. I blame McDonalds for serving inedible food, not for fat people.

I haven't read Ulysses either.

Your opinion on "Ulysses" is worth nothing.

If you start telling us what you think about "Ulysses" we can ignore it as totally uniformed.

However, it would be interesting to see what biases you revealed if you did start claiming you knew everything about...Ulysses.

reading Ulysses??

when I was in Spain it was quite noticably the lack of fat people. I tend to think that obesity is caused by overeating, poor diet, and lack of exercise. what is your take??

Do you think it's ENTIRELY an individual's choice to be unhealthy, as you seem to believe it is the fault of a nation's citizens that they end up being exploited by Wall Street?

available that yes indeed people can in fact make decisions or not as to their eating habits. without a doubt.

Wall Street doesn't exploit me at all when I am ordering at a Vietamese restaurant or shopping at Safeway. You will never find me in a Burger King or McDonalds without a gun to my head.

you don't believe you have a choice as to what and how much you put in your body?? amazing.

decline of our society.

I didn't say that it was ONLY bad choices that make people fat. There is a nexus. That's reality. It isn't just genes that determines you you are, right?

Society is way more integrated. We can do things to make things better for people.

The other side of this coin is that when people succeed, it isn't only because of choices they make. People rise and fall because of a complicated nexus that involves not only personal choices, but choices (whether to act or to not act) that are made in legislatures and board rooms and in back rooms.

One of the most right wing attitudes I see DAILY is people saying that decisions made in board rooms and legislatures don't matter -- that everything that happens to people happens because of personal choices.

That makes it a lot easier to allow the misery and the exploitation to continue, don't you think?

laws and business decisions affect people who have no control over the decision making process are in fact directly affected by those decisions. business decisions people have even less input because they don't elect the board members.

obesity on the other hand, is within one's own ability to control.

They don't have to drive everywhere. Because like Spain they have that damn commie socialist public transportation. RIght wingers hate having to spend money on anything like that. You know what I'm sayin' don't cha.

lol. wouldn't be the first time.

people in the US eat too much. that is what I am saying.

I think there should be more public transportation in more cities. I don't think that is going to fix the obesity problem though. I would much rather spend more money on public transportation than say the Iraq war perhaps???

Americans are pretty stubborn when it comes to cars though. more and better public transportation will be a tough order to fill. People think that traffic problems can be solved by just building more roads. it doesn't work that way. but then again, I am a "right winger" so I can't be correct.

agree with you. They'll take a crappy job and public transportation any day.

are you saying that people who can't afford a car would take a crappy job and public transportation over what??? a good job and car??


how about this? take public transportation with a good job like I do.

of getting there. Like it is the case with many in the US. At a minimum people will take a shitty job if at least they have affordable public transportation. Are you saying everybody can afford to have a car and everybody can have a"good job". I guess all poor people re just lazy. If I could I'd draw you a diagram next time.

(this was written before the whole hatchet thingy)

yeah, I am all for public transportation but you are right that for the most part is not good in the US. latin america has all those "chicken buses" and public city buses making transportation really cheap. even if you are poor its pretty cheap.

I still say most fat people are their own problem though. Not "Wall Street" or Tom Delay. I am not buying into the victim argument.

But OK.

you know your terms are too onerous and I can't pay it back. I am a victim!!

but rather installed by powers that work together with the World Bank?

Perez was elected to reject Washington Consensus economics. He turned around and entered into loan agreements the people expressly elected him to reject.

There couldn't have been a more stark contrast between for what the people voted and what the president ended up doing.

But don't tell our boy that. He'll call you a gringo. ;-)

what Nestor Kirchner did in Argentina.
Argentina collapsed under the vampire system known as American neo-liberalism.
Kirchner decided to pay off the $9.9 billion IMF debt and essentially told them to get out of his country.
Today Argentina has the fastest growing economy in South America.

i question yr logic, i bet many of these nations, such as brazil, like being their own country and are not looking to unite w. anyone

cooperate yes, have peaceful trade w. yes

unite with? that's a pretty big leap

not to mention that Portuguese speaking latin america is already united in a big place called Brazil.

what would they integrate with Spanish speaking latin america for?? I am sure they would prefer to preserve their own culture and country and not live out some extranjero's ideaological fantasy.

Have you traveled around Europe? The freedom to move from country to country and do business unimpeded is sweet. And the best thing -- it's not only for big corporations, if a Dutchman wants to reply to a job ad in Italy and move there, he can. Or a Greek to Spain. Or a Spaniard to Britain. Or a Swede to France. Or a Portuguese to Finland. Unlike some other "free" trade agreements I could mention. *cough*NAFTA*cough*FTAA*cough*

and how they should organize.

On the other hand, a fair deal involving all (or most) LA countries, in equal footing, would be a good thing.

What "gringos" are those you speak of?

didn't you just say that in Europe commerce and people can move freely?

the gringos I was speaking of include those who apparently already know what is best for latin america.

as opposed with "half-free" trade.

And I really don't like "gringos" who "apparently already know what is best for Latin America." What we differ about is the identity of such "gringos."

I'll give a hint, use the profile feature. Out of the 3 people in this little sub-thread only one is a real life, walking breathing gringo. Every time there's a thread about Latino América. You show up to tell others how Latin Americans should live. But hey it's not like there's a record or anything like it, here in the internets.

DOWN WITH THE WELFARE QUEENS!!!!!

is a Puerto Rican flag waving. I would be pissed too if I lived in a colony.

smile in my face every time I answer your silly ass posts (since no one can see it take my word for it). I find your posts very amusing a sort of comic relief if you will. I'll try it again check the profile and then call him a gringo.

You see no matter how many Latin American chicks you bang you'll still be a gringo. As far as the colony thing goes. Oh well it's OK I guess. I mean I can always come here and tell little silly gringos what I think of them while cashing welfare checks and making brown babies all over the place.

why change a good thing you know?

yeah, its fun to be a gringo in latin america. I like being a gringo. I've liked it ever since I was born. I tried being Japanese for awhile but it didn't work out.

You're kind of amusing too. I am heading to Colombia tomorrow. Is there any repression you would like me to uncover or perhaps interview some AUC or FARC members so I can post about how shitty things are in Colombia because of the US?

I believe is the highest in the world. But it's a waste of time. So I won't bother. Maybe you can interview some paramilitaries about the way those fucking peasants are oppressing them.

I have a feeling you'll be down there hanging out with a bunch of "blanquitos". So you never answered why is a self admitted gringo referring to a Brazilian as a gringo who thinks he knows what's better for Latin America. Pot meet kettle. Chúpate esa en lo que te pelo la otra.

with alot of mulattas. I'll be in Bogota too so you are only half wrong this time.

and I admit I didn't know he was brazilian. I thought most people here were Democrats from the USA and not contributers from other countries.

no reason to get nasty, but that appears to be your nature.

like you haven't been condescending to people since you came on board. If it's wrong for me to assume I guess it's wrong for you to do the same. No?

in your face. just kidding. Sorry if I rubbed you the wrong way.

You might want to ignore the reply I posted in the sub-thread above then. It isn't exactly friendly.

too much arroz and habichuelas will make you fat though.

give me arroz and habichuelas anytime. and I think the other guy was making the "fat people are victims" argument not you, I was just underscoring my point.

aren't you supposed to be on a plane by now?

There's power in unity when you are dealing with the US. Europe figured it out, even though things are not as easy as they had hoped with the EU..

The SA countries will probably end up with a loose federation that trades together and aids each other, but I doubt there will be a US of SA..The geography is difficult to say the least ..

By paying off their debts to the IMF and the World Bank, they will be declaring their independence though, and the interest saved will certainly help if it's spent to uplift the poor..

If a country takes care of its poor, they will have less unrest, and that's a positive to be sure..

I heard something about it, not too long ago.


"Uh, princess? ... Jenna, sweetie. Now you know what hard werk daddy does, right? Sure ya do, punkin. Well, all that hard Prezadenting expends a lot of energy, and daddy needs a little boost sumtimes 'cause ... ya, know ... it's hard werk...."

this is piss-oil.

Time to invade - err, 'liberate.'

-as

Next thing we see is a series of "deep thought" articles from NY Times warning us about the Lula-Chavez-Morales axis of evil.

This has been a FOX news alert.

Yep.

"third world" countries are driving out big oil that has been hoarding and choking production to keep the price up.

It's not light, sweet crude. And if it ain't light sweet crude, it doesn't matter.

We have been refining the higher sulfur crude for years. It takes extra steps to get the sulfur out, but it is better than being slaves to the Saudi Royals

is sufficient to make the impact of this discovery on global prices to be less than negligible.

That's why news of these discoveries doesn't impact the price of oil on the exchanges. A discovery of light sweet crude equivalent in barrel volume to this discovery would move the market, in contrast.

It's insignificant.

700 million barrels. That is a whopping 8 days of global oil demand.

WHOOO HOOO!!!!! Peak oil has been pushed back a week. Time to buy another SUV

debts--not Argentina (and Venezuela). Bolivia and Venezuela are in better shape than Argentina. Argentina is still in political/economic difficulty, after a big grass roots uprising against IMF/World Bank policy.

There is sure some amazing news coming out of South America these days. Basically, the whole map of the subcontinent has gone "blue"--leftist governments elected in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela and now Bolivia. I thought the Chavez victory (multiple victories, really) in Venezuela was sweet. But Evo Morales' victory in Bolivia is even sweeter. He won 55% of the vote in a field of eight--the biggest prez win in Bolivia's history. He campaigned with a wreath of pure coca leaves around this neck, vowed to end the murderous US-backed "war on drugs" (i.e., war on peasants), and stated that, "I am the United States' worst nightmare." Indigenous roots himself, raised in the mountains, parents poor coca leaf growers. Bolivia is the country that threw Bechtel out. Bechtel had gotten control of Bolivian water supplies, and tried to charge peasants for collecting RAINWATER. The people rose up. The people said goodbye to Bechtel, and elected Evo Morales.

And, yes, these countries are, indeed, forming regional political and economic alliances--and a nascent EU-type common market has been started. They are also reaching across the oceans and forming independent economic alliances abroad. I suppose Chavez might have some ideas of Bolivarian unity, but I think what's happening--and likely to happen--is mutual strength against outside interference. They seem to be doing everything right--using oil/gas resources to build infrastructure--schools, medical clinics, small business grants for vast poor populations, land reform, economic diversification, and support for indigenous culture. And they're doing it all peacefully and democratically, with no repression. They seem unafraid of the US. This is such a joy to see! And Chavez has shown an interesting read on the US. He seems to have figured out that we--US citizens--are also oppressed by the global corporate predators and drug warriors of the US gov't. He's supplying cheap heating fuel to the poor in several US states. He appears to be surprised and shocked by the poverty in the US.

Don't you love it? Such beautiful ironies!

It's amazing what you can accomplish when you have the right to vote. Majority rule! Imagine! Now let's do it here!

urging people to conserve gas because of the skyrocketing prices. To drive the point home, it showed an animated map of Brazil with little arms and a face, extracting oil barrels off itself slowly, and then swallowing a fast stream of barrels, while the announcer said the figures of production and consumption.

The production was about 20% of the consumption.

Looking at this news, and remembering those times, makes me feel damn proud.

How much is the USA's production/consuption ratio?

In fact, it's a whopping 8/10 of 1% of Ghawar's EUR! WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, that'll take care of global oil demand for . . . about a week.

:eyes:

and independence from foreign oil sources too I suppose.

Production here was already very close to consumption, so this was the proverbial straw.

700 million barrels EUR qualifies as a "giant" field under oil industry guidelines, but it's hardly "huge". Ghawar, Burgan, East Texas were "huge". This certainly isn't.

I don't know, they have a pretty big army, numbering into the brazillions...

1. Soccer
2. Women
3. Oil

They have black people there...;-)

God forbid he enter into closer alliance with Chavez...

:rofl:

I can see it now. Bush: brazil has SOCCER OF MASS DESTRUCTION. WE MUST INVADE, for the sake of homeland security and oil...

Even if they don't WMD's I'm sure the repubs can invent some.

It would be a great way to get a free vacation.:thumbsup:

Isn't it a shame how nowadays that's a GOOD thing?

If we're fast, we can get a resolution drafted to authorize an invasion and occupation for bogus reasons! We've got to "save" the rainforest, don't you know?

:shrug: